Specification updated. <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter?action=diff&rev2=623&rev1=622> "If the item is not installed nor queued for installation, the price of the item (e.g. 'Free') at the leading end, and a button at the trailing end: 'Buy…' if installation requires sign-in and payment, 'Install…' if it requires sign-in only, or 'Install' if it requires neither."

Unfortunately the changes in lp:~mvo/software-center/lp968974 are not sufficient and this needs more work, see
the code review comments from kiwinote for the additional issues that needs fixing before this can land.

This also affects application lens, as some apps display 'Buy Free' button in the preview in the dash, because software-center-dbus GetAppDetails() call returns price = "Free" and raw_price = "0.00". For consistency with other commercial apps, price in the app details data should say "US$ 0.00" (i.e. should be a formatted price) for those apps.

Pawel, I disagree. I think it makes more sense to have the free apps simply be listed as "Free" then as $0. This is pretty standard convention in other app distribution models. However, they shouldn't say, "Buy Free" because that just doesn't make sense.

@cassidyjames you and @stolowski have valid points. I think there needs to be delineation of "free to access" apps vs "go thru buy process" apps. For instance, apps in the "paid applications/commercial" status do require one to go through the buy process to validate a subscription whereas other apps that are not "commercial" do not. So technically "commercial" apps are not "free", but they are $0.00 requiring one to go through the purchase process which is simply a login to the pay system for validation.

The "Nitro" app shows "Free" and there's a "Buy..." button that takes me to sign in the payment service. So I kinda did a $0.00 purchase. Why was that and is that expected behavior? IMHO not the best UX and quite confusing even for a power user.

Well, in non-english, there is yet another related issue, the ambiguity free/gratis does not nessessrly exist, the current situation probably enforces this ambiguity on other languages! I think a 0.00$ is ok; or Gratis.

The Software Centre should be context-sensitive, so when you're looking at an app where price == 0.00, the option is to 'Install' with the price text shown as 'Free', and if price > 0.00, the option is to 'Buy', with the price text will be shown as the price.

This bug has a lot of duplicates, so the effect of this bug is fairly noticeable to several users. Still present in 13.04

@jpugh Login to verify "subscription" on a free "commercial" app does not make sense. It is also poorly aligned with the general F/OSS policy. If this behaviour is something forced on Canonical by the commercial companies behind these applications, then this should be clarified to the user, as to not appear as a forced recruitment for Ubuntu One.

I don't expect to have to accept additional terms of services, and create and login to an account to install FREE/GRATIS software on a F/OSS operating system. I hope the bug here is just the misplacing of the buy-button and the forced login that comes with it. If not, then we are done, Ubuntu. Then we are done.

I think the whole software center should make more clear the distinction between Free Software (as in free speech), Free software (as in free beer, freeware) and commercial software with a price.
And when installing freeware software that requires sign on, it should alert that is just for "subscription" need, you're not paying anything. I remember, when installing Steam, I was kind of scared: I had to press a Buy button, even if the price was 0, and then sign in to my launchpad account without a help/explanation/apparent motive.

This is not fixed in Ubuntu 12.04 and Gigalomania (as original bug-reporter said).
The source code of this game is freely available - so it's Free (as in freedom, not money) Software, licensed under GPL v2.

still present while downloading free game 'wakfu' through software center in 13.10 - asked to 'buy' and log into ubuntu one

all my comments are repeats of and agreements to the above; 'purchase' or 'buy' as a button never ever makes sense gramatically in English for obtaining a free product- there should be an 'install' button which is consistent with the rest of the software catalog. if the software catalog is having issues with free as in beer vs free as in speech, that's a shame, because it should be a bastion and showcase for apps that are free in both regards, as well as showing how free as in beer but closed source apps play well with their FOSS friends and alternatives. instead it seems the software center isn't even designed to showcase free, closed-source apps that should be a simple automated install :(

as usual, ubuntu doesn't have enough developers to keep up with 18 month old UX bugs, and the debian core remains usable while the ubuntu user experience looks well intentioned but unmaintained :/ not complaining, just lamenting- I have neither the time nor the experience to contribute more to ubuntu, and I don't expect others to pick up the slack. just making an observation that ubuntu's most polished features tend to appear as if they are perpetual alpha-builds.

@overprescribed: "… the software catalog … should be a bastion and showcase for apps that are free in both regards…"

Um…

There is no "should" in this regard. Remember that the target user for Ubuntu (which includes myself) doesn't give a hoot about libre vs. licensed. We only care that the products are cheap and that they work without malware.

If Ubuntu starts making a noise about libre vs. licensed, it will simply put off many LInux converts.

This seems to -still- be an issue on 14.04 with applications such as Nitro Tasks and Steam... There hasn't been any discussion in quite some time so I figured I'd make note about 14.04 in particular. It sure is a confusing task when a new Ubuntu convert fires it up and realizes they have to set up an account to log in to the service before "purchasing" the free application they're intending to install...

to handle the other apps (which don't appear free even when they should)

based on the readme there were some extra python packages required which i installed then i did
python setup.py build
./software-center

as instructed to get a 'developer instance' which opened a software center that promptly crashed. i got some error messages about modules not found such as queue and urllib.parse which look like python3 modules which doesn't make sense since xapian is in python2. I'd like some guidance with this. tia